Pre-war[edit]
The films produced at Denham were
A Yank at OxfordA Yank at Oxford (1938), The Citadel
(1938), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Busman's Honeymoon (US: Haunted
Honeymoon, 1940).
Production was initially headed by Michael Balcon. However, he left
after a single film and was replaced by Victor Saville. The subsidiary
was in abeyance during the war.
Meanwhile, Amalgamated Studios Ltd constructed a large studio on the
north side of Elstree Way between 1935 and 1937. A January 1937 deal
for eight films to be made for the American studio Columbia Pictures
soon collapsed. The company was unable to meet the cost of building
work, and sold the facility to the Rank Organisation, which was not
interested in using the studios itself, but wanted to stop John
Maxwell's rival British International Pictures (BIP) from being able
to compete more effectively with its own new Pinewood Studios.[1]
During the war, the studios were leased from Rank by the Ministry of
Works which used them for storage.[2]
Post-war[edit]
Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the former Amalgamated Studios,
BorehamwoodBorehamwood in April 1944.[3] MGM's
Edward, My SonEdward, My Son (1949), with
Spencer TracySpencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr, was the first film to be produced at
the studio.
Films made at the MGM-British studios for the parent company include
IvanhoeIvanhoe (1952) and
The Dirty DozenThe Dirty Dozen (1967). Production designer Alfred
Junge's castle setting for the former was to dominate the Borehamwood
skyline for some years afterwards. The facilities were hired by other
companies;
20th Century Fox20th Century Fox shot the films
AnastasiaAnastasia (1956) and The
Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) at Borehamwood. When Ealing Studios
sold its own studios in 1956, they moved production of their last few
films to MGM-British (with their logo now reading Ealing Films rather
than Ealing Studios). Lew Grade's ITC used it for television series,
including
The PrisonerThe Prisoner (1967–68). One of the last films shot there,
MGM's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), has been cited as one of the
primary causes behind the closure of the studio, owing to Stanley
Kubrick's production occupying more and more of the available studio
space—eventually using all of it—for almost two years.
The studio was in operation until 1970, one of the last productions
being the UFO television series. At that time, MGM made a production
and distribution deal with EMI, and began to use its facility
(commonly known as Elstree Studios) becoming MGM-EMI, an arrangement
which only lasted until 1973, with MGM having a financial interest in
only a few films. The
BorehamwoodBorehamwood site was cleared.
Principal productions[edit]

BAFTA
British Board of Film Classification
British Film Institute
BFI National Archive
BFI Southbank
British Society of Cinematographers
Children's Film Foundation
Cinema Exhibitors' Association
National Film and Television School
National Science and Media Museum
Northern Ireland Screen
Scottish Screen
UK Film Council

People

Actors and actresses
Directors

Other

British Academy Film Awards
British Independent Film Awards
British New Wave
Carry On
Cinematograph Films Act 1927
Documentary Film Movement
Eady Levy
Ealing comedies
Edgar Wallace Mysteries
Free Cinema
Gainsborough melodramas
Harry Potter
History of British film certificates
Home Video Charts
James Bond
London Film Festival
Look at Life
London in film
National Theatre Live
Telecinema